Treeback Camp
Overview The Foreans in charge of preserving the Treeback species have become concerned that the Bane have taken an interest in the Treeback. The caretakers have asked you to take a hazardous journey behind enemy walls to reach a large treeback camp and investigate what is happening to the gentle giants. This counts as a Palisades operation towards the Palisades Targets of Opportunity. This is a quick and not fairly difficult level 20-22 instance. Although Be careful, however, because if you use a group of 4 or more lvl 24+'s for the instance you will be seeing extreamly large mobs exceeding 50 at some parts. Mission Treeback Beachead leads into the instance. Important NPCs * Field Lt. Bagby - Male, AFS, Level 20, Mission Giver * Lt. Galloway - Female, AFS, Level 23, Mission Giver * Captain Markinson - Male, AFS, Level 23, Mission Giver ?? several more s Walkthrough Casual overview: Although you don't have any quests going in, there are 5 or so inside. The security chief is to the northeast. To get to him, follow a path from the west side of the main battlefield, around the mountain's edge. One of them is in the building near the center. The other is north of that near a bunch of Treebacks. Go back and turn in the heads quest and the boss will spawn to the south east in a small bunker. Quite easy, mob swarming is the hardest part. Carpet bombing FTW. (You may want to hold that first quest, by Drewsome) When you report to Bagby, his first quest for you is to retake the AFS camp immediately to your south and activate the computer (if you went E to the gate/forcefield you have already overshot the camp). When he gives you the quest, he will assign two NPC's to help you. If you don't retake the camp, the NPC's will follow and help you fight throughout the instance. They don't do much damage, but they won't die either. This is handy because they will sometimes help distract the Howlers (letting you plant an EMP charge). Once you've done all the other quests, you can still take the camp and get quest credit. Walkthrough by Gattsuru. This is a quick and not fairly difficult level 20-22 instance. Every mission involved is inside the actual instance, so you don't need to bring anything from outside, although I would suggest at least a half-dozen EMP bombs, an EMP shotgun, and a laser or sonic rifle. There are a lot of Howler packs running around, and some of them aren't owned by a Hunter. Note that I'm doing this from memory, so names may be inaccurate. The first mission is from a Lt. Bagby just next to the entrance, to clear out a base camp. Not particularly difficult -- run in, zap everything, activate the computer. Wait for Bagby to run in, and chat with him. Follow the canyon south, taking out enemies as you do. You'll eventually run into a giant Bane gate with a very small force field in the middle. Talk to the AFS unit with a radio of his head, and head south to take over the Bane bunker, and flip the switch inside. Again, nothing too nasty. Now BEFORE HEADING EAST, take the north bunker. It's got a pair of rather nasty spawns close enough that they can't really be separated (soloers can expect 5 Howlers, a Hunter, a couple Lightbenders, and a Thrax), so don't be afraid to use an EMP Bomb or two against the Howlers; they're robotic enough to take massive damage from them. Once you've cleared that mess, head into the Bunker and talk to the disabled AFS guy. No, you can't heal him. He'll give you a mission to take out a bunch of Howlers. It's harder than it sounds, since the named Hunter's Pet howlers don't count, but there are more than enough of those things to slaughter even solo. Head south to the gate again. You should see a female officer with a radio over her head, with a mission to kill three named Thrax. If she won't give it out yet, don't panic. To the east of the gate, another AFS member will offer a mission to destroy five power conduits. Whether you get the mission to kill the named Thrax or not, head east and follow the northern edge of the map. Most of the enemies will just be Machina and Thrax, but sometimes a pair of Striders will drop. Unless you still need kills of those guys, just let the AFS Mechs take care of them. Eventually, you'll see a location with five "Sonic Fence" posts sticking out of the ground. IF YOU HAVE THE KILL NAMED THRAX mission, just walk through the sonic fence. There's a few Technicians and Caretakers, as well as a load of Altered Treebacks. Don't let the Treeback's levels fool you; they still do decent virulent damage, which can be pretty irritating. On the other hand, three shots from a laser rifle will take them out. Don't be afraid to plink them to death, or to pull the Technicians outside the Sonic Fence. There's also a named Technician in here, so be ready to fire for a long time. DO NOT DESTROY THE GAS HARVESTER. Once you've cleared those enemies out, follow a path on the northwest side of the Treeback holding area up to the first Sonic Repeater. Blow up the power conduit, and rinse and repeat heading around the holding pen until you've completed this mission. You'll be able to radio it in. IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE KILL NAMED THRAX mission, head west from the sonic fence until you see a path heading up the cliff face to a bunker and a mortar. You don't need to destroy the mortar if you don't have the necessary firepower, just follow the path north and east until you get to the first sonic repeater. Follow along the line without dropping down into the altered Treeback pen. Once you've taken out the five power conduits, radio in the mission, head back to the Force Field Gate, and talk to everyone with a radio over their head. You should be able to get the "Kill Named Thrax" mission now. Head back to the Sonic Fence, walk through it, and take out the Technicians and Caretakers inside. As above, don't be afraid to kill the Treebacks, do be afraid to step in the middle of a bunch of them, and DO NOT DESTROY THE GAS HARVESTER. Now that everyone's at the same point, head back to the final Sonic Repeater, and follow the path southeast. You'll see a small, empty Bane base with a switch outside it. Flip the switch, and wait outside the door. The AFS will airlift a single counterintell expert, and the Bane will drop in a named Lightbender that happens to be the Security Officer you've been looking for. Pop him like a zit, and then follow the path southwest. In the middle of the field, you'll see another Bane base called the Kennel with loads of Hunters and Howlers. Kill them all, being careful not to pull too many enemies at a time. Among them will be the last of the Three Named Thrax you need to take out. If you don't have all the Howlers necessary for that quest, finish them off now. Head back to the Force Field gate (again), turn "Cut off the Head..." if you didn't do so by radio, turn in Howler Revenge, and talk to the mission giver for "Cut off the Head..." for a mission to kill the Thrax Commander. He's in the eastern bunker inside the southern Bane Base, and rather hard to miss. Do beware a Stalker that tends to drop in the lake near said Bane Base. You don't need to wipe out anything but the commander. Go back to the Force Field gate (yet again!) if you can't turn the mission in by radio. This is all you need to do for Operation Completion. There is one last mission, though; head all the way to the northeastern base you grabbed to summon the Security Chief lightbender, and talk to the counterintel officer. He'll give you a can of nerve gas, and tell you to stick it into the Gas Harvester near the Treebacks. See why I said not to destroy it? Just head over, pop the cylinder in with T near the base, and you're golden. All missions complete. KNOWN BUGS * It's possible to kill several of the named Thrax throughout the zone before taking the mission to kill them, and thus it's possible to make the missions impossible to complete. The Head Researcher in particular is an easy one to do, especially since players following the most visible mission lines will head straight through them. * "Cut off the Head..." has unpredictable requirements, many of which are unrelated, and may require multiple backtracks. I'm not sure why it only shows up after getting the Howling Revenge mission. While it can be radio'd in, the follow-up mission is not assigned by radio. * The completion text for the Sonic Repeater power conduit destruction mission states that the counterintel officer will have the final mission for those who enter the area. That's true if you've completed every other mission, but he won't have anything for you to do until you've done at least "Cut of the Head..." and the mission to kill the Bane Commander. Given that the natural progression of the zone has you passing by all the power conduits long before taking out the Security Officer, nevermind the Thrax Commander, it may need to be fixed. * "Pacify the Treebacks" is not necessary for the zone's operation completion and has some really pointless requirements. At least making it available when the player first takes the Bane outpost would make the most sense and actually make it possible to take without having to backtrack several times. * "Howling Revenge" is currently very hard to complete as the there are two types of howler type beasts in the instance and only one count for the objective. There are also only about 8 Hunters with their Howlers in the instance and NPC kills doesn't count for the objective. It has been suggested to kill the Howler and run away for the Hunter to spawn new Howler allowing you to kill all 8 Howlers in one place. * Many of the missions lack markers to indicate where you are to go next. For example, after you use the gas to kill the treebacks, there is no indication you need to go all the way back to the beginning camp area to complete it. Once that is done, you will have no further mission markers in the instance but it is not complete, you must run around looking for the next mission giver. Prior to this, when you are to open the gate on the bane generator area, it is not indicated that you only have to flip a switch, and the barrier is immune to normal damage like EMP bombs.